THE NATIONAL MORAL CRISIS IS ALREADY HERE

The article behind this LINK is a continuation of the Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis movement that began on Ash Wednesday 2018, and now calling us to the next step in the process to ready ourselves to confront the moral crisis in our nation that is dangerously deepening at an alarming rate.

An excerpt: “Now we look toward Ash Wednesday 2019. Because the moral and political crisis the Reclaiming Jesus declaration responded to has become even deeper and more dangerous, we believe that a national call to prayer is in order to prepare us, as people of faith, for what we believe is coming. The national moral crisis is already here when it comes to what immigrants and people of color are experiencing. Executive overreach to protect the president and his agenda may further challenge other branches of government and the rule of law and could therefore add a constitutional crisis to compound our national emergency.

Prayer and fasting prepares us for action; prayer and fasting are actions in themselves. How will church leaders, pastors, and local congregations respond to the escalations of crises that are coming in 2019? To prepare for those times of crisis, and the need for a readiness for response from the faith community, we are calling for national prayer and fasting beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing through Lent. I invite all our readers to prayerfully read this letter in their congregations from the Reclaiming Jesus elders and consider how you can amplify its message and observe this call in your life, family, and faith community this Lent.

As the elders who wrote the declaration ‘Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis,’ to which 5 million people responded, we now issue ‘A Call to Prayer and Fasting.’ We urge Christians to remain steadfast in their faith and engage with the deepening challenges our nation faces.

We pray with those who suffered during the unconscionable
government shutdown and with those who face poverty and hunger every
day. We pray for those who live in fear of deportation and family
separation. We pray for those who face violence — especially parents who
fear for their children of color — and those who endure language of
racial divisiveness. We pray for the soul of the nation and the
resilience of our government’s processes. We pray for those who have
lost hope.

Above all, we pray for God to take away our
fear and stir within us certainty in the fact that Jesus Christ is
Lord. We pray that all will come to know that Jesus is love and that
this knowledge will permeate our lives. We pray that we may have wisdom
to discern and speak truth, and courage to stand for it in our public
squares. We pray that we may be bridges that bring God’s love to our
angry national discourse. We pray for pure hearts.

Therefore, we are calling for national prayer and fasting beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6, and continuing through the season of Lent. We call upon church leaders, pastors, and local congregations to respond to the ongoing devastation that so many people face. We also call upon church leaders to stand up to the misuse and abuse of political power, in protection of the constitutional checks and balances of government and the common good…”

Mike W

Permanent link to this article: http://lacatholicworker.org/2019/02/15/the-national-moral-crisis-is-already-here